The Mountain Athletic Club will host the Delhi Polecats for a progressive format vintage base ball game ball at Fleischmanns Saturday, Oct. 19. The game will be played at the historic M.A.C. Grounds at Fleischmanns Park and will showcase nearly 40 years of baseball evolution starting with the rules of 1858 and progressing through 1895. The event will be the capstone of the vintage base ball community’s “A Pitch For Doc Adams” awareness effort. First pitch will be at noon.
Making a pitch for Doc Adams here in Delaware County makes a lot of sense, said Collin Miller, captain of the Mountain Athletic Club.
“We had baseball here well before 1825, so the game Doc grew up playing in rural New England back then eventually developed into the game we play today,” Miller said.
The vintage base ball community rallied behind Daniel Lucius Adams, MD (aka “Doc”) by sponsoring “A Pitch For Doc Adams” events across the country to raise awareness of this long-overlooked baseball pioneer and his hall of fame case.
Doc Adams, who played a pioneering role during baseball’s nascent period, is eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2025 Classic Baseball Era ballot to be announced shortly. The finalists will be voted on at the MLB Winter Meetings in December with those elected being inducted next July as members of the Class of 2025.
Adams was born in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire on Nov. 1, 1814. He graduated from Yale in 1835 and Harvard Medical School in 1838. In 1839, he moved to New York where he established his own medical practice.
Doc Adams’ contributions to the national pastime include the creation of the shortstop position and being the first to occupy it, and helping craft the foundation of the modern game.
Doc joined the New York Base Ball Club in 1840. By 1845, he joined the famed Knickerbocker Base Ball Club a month after they were founded, playing in their first match game. He served as their president (six terms), vice-president, director, and led the committee to revise the rules of the Knickerbockers.
He was elected president of the first baseball convention and his “Laws of Base Ball” were presented at that meeting. Adams’ hand-written draft of the rules was rediscovered and sold at auction in 2016 for $3.26 million.
Adams served as the head of the National Association of Base Ball Players’ Rules Committee from its inception through his retirement.
When he retired, the Knickerbocker BBC proclaimed him “The Nestor of Ball Players” (a patriarch or leader in a field). Upon his retirement from the game and move to Connecticut, Adams had a distinguished post-baseball career.
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) selected Doc Adams as their 2014 19th Century Overlooked Baseball Legend. The annual award honors a 19th century player, manager, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Doc Adams previously appeared on the 2016 Pre-integration Era ballot, receiving 10 of the 12 votes needed for election.
More information on Doc Adams and his contributions to the game of baseball can be found at www.DocAdamsBaseBall.org
